Did anyone use to read Digitiser, Teletext's video game pages in the 1990s? One of the writers Paul Rose, a big 2000 AD fan, wrote this the other day in response to a comment about a Dredd TV series spin off game. I thought it was an interesting behind-the-scenes story, so I felt like sharing it.
If it's any consolation - and here I go name-dropping again - I'm mates with Alex Garland, and I was the first person to read his Dredd scripts. The first one was pure Dredd - a pretty much word-for-word remake of the first two Judge Death stories. Incredibly faithful, but... it was a weird proposition as a movie. Also, very high-budget... but they never got the money to make it.
He sent me his first draft of the new version (in a file labelled "Peach Trees") - which was more or less what you saw on screen, barring a few changes. And ohhhhh... we debated long and hard about it. And I suspect I was so passionate that I probably offended him rather. I also tried to get him to use Brendan McCarthy as a concept artist. But again, I was far too pushy and passionate about it, and likely overstepped the boundaries.
But...! When I saw the first cut of the movie, I loved it. It's not the Dredd I would do, but it's HIS interpretation of Dredd, and it works. And uses its tiny budget in a clever way.
Probably my biggest claim to fame - not that you see it on screen - but the perps who get shot at the start of the movie were residents of "Paul Rose Block" according to their identification papers. Apparently, a shot where you see this was edited out. But! You can still glimpse "Rose Block" in the back of one shot of Mega City One (the first one in the trailer I think).
The link is here. You can find the Dredd video game comments at the top of the page and this quote at the bottom.
http://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/the-digitiser2000-friday-letters-page8712408
If it's any consolation - and here I go name-dropping again - I'm mates with Alex Garland, and I was the first person to read his Dredd scripts. The first one was pure Dredd - a pretty much word-for-word remake of the first two Judge Death stories. Incredibly faithful, but... it was a weird proposition as a movie. Also, very high-budget... but they never got the money to make it.
He sent me his first draft of the new version (in a file labelled "Peach Trees") - which was more or less what you saw on screen, barring a few changes. And ohhhhh... we debated long and hard about it. And I suspect I was so passionate that I probably offended him rather. I also tried to get him to use Brendan McCarthy as a concept artist. But again, I was far too pushy and passionate about it, and likely overstepped the boundaries.
But...! When I saw the first cut of the movie, I loved it. It's not the Dredd I would do, but it's HIS interpretation of Dredd, and it works. And uses its tiny budget in a clever way.
Probably my biggest claim to fame - not that you see it on screen - but the perps who get shot at the start of the movie were residents of "Paul Rose Block" according to their identification papers. Apparently, a shot where you see this was edited out. But! You can still glimpse "Rose Block" in the back of one shot of Mega City One (the first one in the trailer I think).
The link is here. You can find the Dredd video game comments at the top of the page and this quote at the bottom.
http://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/the-digitiser2000-friday-letters-page8712408
.
